Champion show jumper ‘lucky to be alive’ after being kicked in the head by her horse

James Silcocks

A 23-year-old champion show jumper from Tealby is lucky to be alive after being left with horrendous injuries when one of her horses kicked her in the head.

Gina Ruck, who now lives in Lincoln, was working at her family’s stables in Tealby last Wednesday morning (December 16) when the freak accident took place.

Gina Ruck after the surgery.

One of the horses reared up and kicked Gina in the head while she tried to coax it back into its paddock.

Gina, who was not wearing a protective hat at the time, was left unconcious and bleeding - but thankfully her skull was not fractured.

Gina told the Market Rasen Mail: “I’ve never had any issues like this with one of our horses before, it was just a freak accident.”

After regaining consciousness, Gina called her mother Lesley who was en route to the stables.

Gina Ruck.

Lesley called an ambulance and Gina was rushed to Lincoln County Hospital, where she had a CT scan which was clear. The following day, she underwent one hour of emergency surgery involving 33 stitches to her head.

Gina said: “When I came round, I thought I’d lost the sight in my eye because lots of blood had gone over my eyes. I was panicking.

“The doctor said that I was lucky to be alive. Luckily the horse didn’t have shoes on or it could have been much worse.”

“My mum has not stopped crying due to the shock. It only hit me a few days later just how serious it could have been.”

Gina added: “All I’ve got now is a big headache, and I keep needing to sleep a lot.

“I’ll take it easy for the next few weeks and definitely be back working again in January.”

Gina said that now she’ll wear a hat at all times when around her horses - not just when riding them - and she thanked the emergency services, hospital staff, her mother, and Dave Burton who brought the horses in when the ambulance arrived at the scene.